It’s hard to create and sell products, but it’s easier when you approach it with the right mindset.
Here are a collection of 40 concepts to help you figure out how to create products people want, find people who want them, and convince people to pay for them.
1. A sale is the result of your ability to communicate what a product is, what it does, and who it’s for.
2. To get customers to say yes, remove the reasons they say no.
3. A product only has to be valuable to the people who buy it.
4. The words others say about your product matter more than your own.
5. The less a product does, the more likely it does it well.
6. It’s impossible to sell something people don’t want.
7. Don’t sell the product — sell the result it enables.
8. Price isn’t determined by what a product costs to make, it’s determined by what a customer is willing to pay.
9. Sales happen when you put the right product in front of the right person at the right time with the right story.
10. People buy transformations, not products.
11. It’s easier to create a solution than a need.
12. If the only reason to choose your product is price, your product can be easily replaced by any other product with a better price.
13. Great products emerge from conversations with the people they’re for.
14. A sale isn’t the end of a relationship — it’s the beginning.
15. Every purchase is an investment and every customer expects a return on that investment…but that return doesn’t always have to be a financial one.
16. People buy for reasons that have nothing to do with the product itself: To feel good, to avoid doing something else, to get access, to signal to others.
17. Getting someone to buy and getting someone to tell others about what they bought require different strategies.
18. Most people buy products because they either want to fit in or stand out.
19. Buying is scary — make it feel safe.
20. The first step to building a valuable product is finding a valuable problem.
21. There needs to be a clear reason to choose your product instead of another.
22. People’s assumptions about the value of your product are largely based on the price you set.
23. Your audience will tell you what they’ll buy if you create an opportunity for them to do so.
24. You’ll never sell a product for more than you believe it’s worth.
25. A “fair price” for your product is whatever people are willing to pay for it.
26. There are products people buy mainly to be able to say they bought them.
27. The reasons people bought products 50 years ago are the same reasons they buy products today.
28. Charge more.
29. There’s no such thing as a “free” product: It may not cost money, but it will cost a customer time, effort, and attention.
30. Confusion is the leading cause of product failure.
31. When you pitch your product, use your customer’s words.
32. A product is just a delivery mechanism for a result.
33. Potential customers have no idea existing customers love your product (unless you tell them).
34. If you can sell one, you can sell 10, and if you can sell 10, you can sell 100.
35. Successful products contain the lessons of failed products.
36. If there’s no reason for someone to buy now instead of later, they won’t.
37. Your job isn’t to sell, it’s to provide.
38. The stronger your product, the weaker you can be at sales (and vice versa).
39. Discounts only drive sales to people who seek discounts.
40. Study how others make and sell products.